Essays

Kindling’s manifesto for human genius

From the start, we have built community, family, culture, civilization, technology, and art. We’ve created millennia’s worth of indigenous knowledge and wisdom. We’ve built the pyramids in Egypt and the temples of Macchu Picchu. We’ve invented the very concepts of democracy, justice, and equity. We’ve built skyscrapers and space stations. We’ve grown a worldwide web of infinite knowledge and connection. We’ve explored particle physics, relativity, the origin of the universe, and the depths of our own consciousness. We’ve brought into being a bounty of miraculous, beautiful wonders that had never before existed. We continue to do so every day.

We are geniuses!

We are geniuses, but we’ve forgotten.

Instead, we tell ourselves we are unworthy sinners. We tell ourselves that we are small and powerless. We tell ourselves that the nature around us and that we are a part of is beautiful and wondrous, but that we ourselves are ugly, broken, shameful. We tell ourselves that every day we get farther away from a time when everything was perfect.

Yet, the evidence tells us that in fact every century, every year, every day we grow more conscious, more knowledgeable, more compassionate, and more capable. Today, we have it better than we’ve ever had it. Tomorrow can be even better.

It is time to remember our genius, to harness it, to wield it to create the world we want and need.

We can use our genius to create a new, living economy that truly serves us all. We can value humanity over money. We can reshape our society into one that truly realizes our values of fairness and opportunity for all. We can acknowledge that Earth is actually our greatest gift and work to regenerate it and bring ourselves back into harmony with it. We can launch organizations driven by purpose, which view profit simply as a means to an end. We can give ourselves permission to reveal our whole selves and let them out into the world.

We can and we will.

This is why Kindling exists. Join us so that we humans might remember our genius, and discover possibility.

Peter Schulte is the founder and editor of Kindling. Peter is also Senior Digital Engagement Associate for the Pacific Institute and the UN Global Compact's CEO Water Mandate, connecting businesses to sustainable water practices.
Peter holds a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies and a B.A. in Comparative Literature from University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. in Sustainable Systems from Pinchot University. He lives in Bellingham, WA with his partner Sara, child Owen, and cat Winnie.